Five people of a nine-member gang were given jail terms ranging from 14 years imprisonment to death sentence for robbing and murdering a professor in a Guangzhou-based university, according to a final verdict given by Guangdong Higher People's Court on Monday.

Zhou Guohua was sentenced to death with two-year reprieve. Liu Mouqin, and Yang Qiuyong were given life imprisonment. Liu Qingfeng and Yang Zhigang were sentenced to 15 years and 14 years in prison respectively. They were also ordered to pay a compensation of 347,916 yuan (46,388 U.S. dollars).

However, the other four people of the gang were still on the run, the court said.

On August 10, 2006, the nine people drove a van around a residence building complex in Tianhe District, trying to target a "prey".

They crashed the car of Qin Sanhua, a professor of Southern Medical University, on purpose. They robbed Qin of 24,200 yuan and beat him to death. Then they sold his car at 22,000 yuan and shared the money.

The court heard that all the five criminals had previous convictions. But Yang Zhigang and Liu Qingfeng received lighter sentence because they were not directly involved in the murdering since they took the jobs of selling the robbed car and drove the van.

The court said the evidence was not enough to prove Zhou Guohua was the gang leader and that the four wanted suspects might hold greater responsibility for the death. So the court made allowance for revision when they ruled the case. It also suggested strengthening efforts to pursue the wanted men.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2008)